Synopses & Reviews
From the award-winning master of literary crime fiction, a classic work rich in tense drama and psychological insight.
On the East Anglian seacoast, a small theological college hangs precariously on an eroding shoreline and an equally precarious future. When the body of a student is found buried in the sand, the boys influential father demands that Scotland Yard investigate. Enter Adam Dalgliesh, a detective who loves poetry, a man who has known loss and discovery. The son of a parson, and having spent many happy boyhood summers at the school, Dalgliesh is the perfect candidate to look for the truth in this remote, rarified community of the faithful-and the frightened. And when one death leads to another, Dalgliesh finds himself steeped in a world of good and evil, of stifled passions and hidden pasts, where someone has cause not just to commit one crime but to begin an unholy order of murder. . . .
“Gracefully sculpted prose and [a] superbly executed mystery . . . Death in Holy Orders is among [Jamess] most remarkable and accomplished Dalgliesh novels.”
-The Philadelphia Inquirer
“An elegant work about hope, death, and the alternately redemptive and destructive nature of love.”
-The Miami Herald
“Absorbing . . . [Jamess] plotting and characterization [are] impeccable.”
-Orlando Sentinel
“P. D. James is in top form.”
-The Boston Globe
Open the exclusive dossier at the back of this book, featuring P. D. James essay on penning the perfect detective novel.
Synopsis
The untimely death of a young priest in training draws Commander Adam Dalgliesh back to East Anglia to investigate at the request of the young man's father, as Dalgliesh finds himself drawn into a complex and violent mystery. Reissue. 15,000 first printing.
About the Author
P.D. James is the author of sixteen previous books, most of which have been filmed for television. Before her retirement in 1979, she served in the forensics and criminal justice departments of Great Britain's Home Office, and she has been a magistrate and a governor of the BBC. The recipient of many prizes and honours, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. In 2000 she celebrated her eightieth birthday and published her autobiography,
Time to Be in Earnest.
From the Paperback edition.